LYELL, LOTTIE EDITH (1890-1925), actress and film producer, was born on 23
February 1890 at Balmain, Sydney, younger daughter of Joseph Charles Cox, land and
estate agent, and his wife Charlotte Louise, née Hancock, both native born. About
1906 she was taught 'elocution and the natural method' by the Shakespearean actor
Harry Leston. Her parents then placed her in the care of Raymond Longford, an
actor with Edwin Geach's Popular Dramatic Organisation which she joined. For
several years, as 'Lottie Lyell' she toured Australia and New Zealand in such
romantic melodramas as Why Men Love Women, Her love against the world and The
Midnight Wedding. Reviews noted her enunciation, stagecraft and vivacity. She had
bobbed dark hair and an oval face with large brown eyes, a straight nose and
determined chin.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
Lottie Lyell (her stage name) embarked upon an acting career in 1907. She joined Edwin Geach's Popular Dramatic Organization and toured Australia and New Zealand. She was acting in films for Spencer's Pictures from 1911. Lyell played lead roles in films including The Fatal Wedding (1911), The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole (1911) and Australia Calls (1913). In 1919 she played Doreen in Raymond Longford's adaptation of C.J. Denis' The Sentimental Bloke. Lyell and Longford were romantically involved for fourteen years, but Longford was married and the relationship was not publicly acknowledged until near the end of Lyell's life. She died from tuberculosis in 1925.
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Australian Women's Register
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